Topics in Chinese Political Philosophy
Spring 2008
Instructor: Kang Chan (詹康)
Classroom: 綜合 270104
Time: 18:30-21:30 Wednesdays
This course surveys the literature that makes Chinese political philosophy
relevant to modern (esp. post-Tiananmen) China. Presuming that most students are
unfamiliar with Chinese political philosophy, we will spend the first third of the
semester reading some good introductions to this field of knowledge.
Week 1: Introduction to this course
Week 2: Cultural Orientations
Weeks 3-5: Chinese Philosophy: The Basics
Week 6: Chinese Political Philosophy: Outline
The other two thirds of the semester will consider the following topics that, originally
western, have constituted modern political discourse of which Chinese political
philosophy strives to remain a part. How much the Chinese differs from the West
and how much they are similar, to what degree the Chinese adopted Western ideas and
to what degree the Chinese contributes as an alternative to the West, varies in each
topic and according to each interpreter. Therefore, it is all the more interesting to
explore this intellectual foundations no less for the twentieth-first century China than
for the world.
Week 7: Personhood
Week 8: State
Week 9: Law / Rule of Law / Constitutionalism
Weeks 10-11: Human Rights / Liberalism
Weeks 12-13: Democracy
Week 14: Order
Weeks 15-16: Civil Society / Public Sphere
Week 17: Justice
After taking this course, each student will submit a research paper on one political
philosophical concept, either subjecting it to Chinese-Western philosophical
comparison, or locating it in post-Tiananmen Chinese context.
Introduction to this course
Feb. 20
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Cultural Orientations
Feb. 27
Keightley, David N. (吉德煒). “Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How It
Became Chinese.” In Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese
Civilization. Ed. Paul S. Ropp. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
15-54.
Chinese Philosophy: The Basics
Mar. 5 & 12 & 19 (3 Weeks)
Nivison, David Sheperd ( 倪 德 衛 ). “The Classical Philosophical Writings.” In
Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origin of Civilization to 221
B.C. Eds. Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999. 745-812.
Harper, Donald (夏德安). “Warring States Natural Philosophy and Occult Thought.”
In Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origin of Civilization to 221
B.C. Eds. Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999. 813-884.
Chinese Political Philosophy: Outline
Mar. 26
Wu, John C. H. (吳經熊). “Chinese Legal and Political Philosophy.” In The Chinese
Mind: Essentials of Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Ed. Charles A. Moore.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1967. 213-237.
Angle, Stephen C. (安靖如). “Philosophy of Governance.” In Encyclopedia of
Chinese Philosophy. Ed. Antonio S. Cua. New York: Routledge, 2003. 534-540.
Personhood
Apr. 2
Rosemont, Henry, Jr. (羅思文) A Chinese Mirror: Moral Reflections on Political
Economy and Society. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1991. Ch. 3, “Interlude: Modern
Western and Ancient Chinese Concepts of the Person,” 57-78.
Hall, David L. (郝大維). “To Be or Not to Be: The Postmodern Self and the
Wu-Forms of Taoism.” In Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice, eds.
Roger T. Ames & Wimal Dissanayake & Thomas P. Kasulis, Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1994, pp. 213-234.
State
Apr. 9
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Schwartz, Benjamin I. (史華慈), “The Primacy of the Political in East Asian
Societies.” In China and Other Matters. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1996. 114-124.
Kuhn, Philip A. (孔復禮). “Ideas Behind China's Modern State.” Harvard Journal of
Asiatic Studies 55.2 (1995): 295-337.
Law / Rule of Law / Constitutionalism
Apr. 16
Ruskola, Teemu. “Legal Orientalism.” Michigan Law Review 101.1 (2002): 179-234.
Human Rights / Liberalsim
Apr. 23 & 30 (2 Weeks)
Angle, Stephen C. (安靖如). Human Rights and Chinese Thought: A Cross-Cultural
Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Chs. 1, 8, 9, pp. 1-25,
205-249, 250-258.
Rosemont, Henry, Jr. (羅思文). “Whose Democracy? Which Rights? A Confucian
Critique of Modern Western Liberalism.” In Confucian Ethics: A Comparative
Study of Self, Autonomy, and Community. Eds. by Kwong-Loi Shun and David
B. Wong. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. 49-71.
Lee, Seung-hwan (李承煥). “Liberal Rights or/and Confucian Virtues?” Philosophy
East and West 46.3 (1996): 367-379.
Democracy
May 7 & 14 (2 Weeks)
O'Dwyer, Shaun. “Democracy and Confucian Values.” Philosophy East and West
53.1 (2003): 39-63.
Ackerly, Brooke A., 2005. “Is Liberalism the Only Way toward Democracy?
Confucianism and Democracy,” Political Theory 33 (2005): 547-576.
Bell, Daniel A. (貝淡寧). Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East
Asian Context. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. Chs. 1 and 6, pp.
1-19, 152-179.
Order
May 21
Schwartz, Benjamin I. (史華慈), “Hierarchy, Status, and Authority in Chinese
Culture.” In China and Other Matters. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1996. 125-138.
Hall, David L. (郝大維) & Roger T. Ames (安樂哲). Thinking through Confucius.
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Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987: Ch. 3 (pp. 131-192).
Civil Society / Public Sphere
May 28 & June 4 (2 Weeks)
Madsen, Richard. “Confucian Conceptions of Civil Society.” In Alternative
Conceptions of Civil Society. Eds. Simone Chambers and Will Kymlicka.
Princeton, 2002. 190-204.
Nosco, Peter. “Confucian Perspectives on Civil Society and Government.” In Civil
Society and Government. Eds. Nancy L. Rosenblum and Robert C. Post.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. 334-359.
Rosemont, Henry, Jr. (羅思文). “Commentary and Addenda on Nosco’s “Confucian
Perspectives on Civil Society and Government.”” In Civil Society and
Government. Eds. Nancy L. Rosenblum and Robert C. Post. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2002. 360-369.
Liang, Zhiping (梁治平). “Rethinking Civil Society in China: an Interpretative
Approach.” In The Politics of Affective Relations: East Asia and Beyond. Eds.
Hahm Chaihark and Daniel A. Bell. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004.
169-199.
Peerenboom, Randall (皮文睿). “Social Networks, Civil Society, Democracy, and
Rule of Law: A New Conceptual Framework.” In The Politics of Affective
Relations: East Asia and Beyond. Eds. Hahm Chaihark and Daniel A. Bell.
Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004. 249-276.
Justice
June 11
R. P. Peerenboom (皮文睿), “Confucian Justice: Achieving a Humane Society,”
International Philosophical Quarterly 30 (1990): 17-32.
Fan, Ruiping (范瑞平). “Social Justice: Rawlsian or Confucian?” In Comparative
Approaches to Chinese Philosophy. Ed. Bo Mou. Aldershot, Hants, England:
Ashgate, 2003. 144-168.
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